Global benchmarks mostly rise despite ongoing worries about the Iran war

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TOKYO (AP) — Global shares mostly rose in Wednesday trading, boosted by optimism about artificial intelligence and computer chips despite ongoing worries about the war in Iran.

France's CAC 40 gained 0.3% in early trading to 8,056.35, while the German DAX edged up 0.7% to 25,569.01. Britain's FTSE 100 rose nearly 0.7% to 10,706.17.

U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures rising 0.5% to 51,940.00. S&P 500 futures gained 0.3% to 7,755.25.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to finish at 66,753.72. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.9% to 8,789.30. South Korea's Kospi reversed earlier gains and fell 0.5% at 6,838.04. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.4% to 24,613.10, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3% to 3,842.19.

SoftBank Group Corp., which invests in OpenAI, surged more than 6% in Tokyo trading. Also gaining were Japanese chip-related stocks like Renesas Electronics and Rohm Co.

Oil prices are swinging sharply as the U.S. war with Iran drags on, helping to push Treasury yields to their highest levels in 24 years.

Benchmark U.S. crude shed 0.3% to $89.11 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, edged down 0.3% to $102.29 a barrel. Brent is well above the roughly $72 it cost before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

Mediators continued to work with the United States and Iran on reaching a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump over the weekend rejected an offer from Tehran to reopen the key waterway.

Wall Street will see several big economic updates this week that could help investors and the Federal Reserve get a better sense of where inflation is headed.

U.S. inflation rates have remained stubbornly above 3% most of the year, well above the Fed's target rate of 2%. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate again at its next meeting in October.

“While it is easy to focus on the macroeconomic headwinds of bond yields and oil, the underlying U.S. economy remains remarkably resilient,” said Tina Teng, market analyst at Moomoo, a global financial technology and online brokerage company.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar declined to 156.93 Japanese yen from 157.27 yen. The euro cost $1.1352, up from $1.1347.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama